After Ignatius’ time in Montserrat and the decision to lay down his old way of life, he next traveled to Manresa where he expected to rest before boarding a ship for Rome. What was meant to be a temporary detour turned into an 11 month stay, much of it sheltered in a cave near the city. While not part of his plan, this unexpected period of physical stasis was the most important of his spiritual journey. It is where he developed much of what was to become the Spiritual Exercises, the foundation of Ignatian spirituality and the Ignatian worldview. This was a moment where, inspired by a mystical experience while sitting above the Cardoner River, “the eyes of his understanding began to be opened; though he did not see any vision, he understood and knew many things, both spiritual things and matters of faith and learning, and this was with so great an enlightenment that everything seemed new to him. It was as if he were a new man with a new intellect.”

As Maria Autrey, Program Director for the Ignatian Center’s Immersions, explores in her video reflection for this Mission Monday, we are also slowly emerging from our own unexpected and lengthy period of isolation. In her reflection, Maria points to the multitude of ways that the last two years have forced upon us long periods of reflection and moments of reckoning that require social and cultural change. We cannot help but emerge from this moment as new people with new eyes and new intellects. The question is what we will do with them.  

Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises and the breadth of what we now know as Ignatian Spirituality were his response to that moment. In our own time, they provide a wealth of resources for us to answer the questions posed by Maria and by Tony Cortese in his art reflections for this week.  As we walk with Ignatius on this pilgrimage of inclusive justice, we can use the practices he developed at Manresa to best judge where we place ourselves as we exit our caves and how we respond to what we see. 

Questions for reflection:

• Like Maria in this month's video, and like Ignatius in Manresa, have you found yourself emerging from the longer-than-expected 'cave' of the pandemic with a different perspective? Take a few moments to reflect about that new perspective.
• What are some of your strongest desires for your own life and for our world as you come out of the 'cave'? Take a few moments to share those desires with God.
• In what ways might you benefit from occasionally returning to that 'cave' in your prayer? What might God be saying to you in that isolation?